Winter Park High Graduate Earns Rhodes Honor

The Duke University Student Is One Of 32 Americans Who Received The Scholarship To Study In England.

December 7, 1998|By Susan Jacobson of The Sentinel Staff

Awards are nothing new for Neil A. Hattangadi of Orlando.

The 1995 Winter Park High School graduate, who is studying biomedical engineering at Duke University, scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT, won the grand prize at the 46th International Science and Engineering Fair and was featured in USA Today as one of the country's most promising high school graduates.

Now, Hattangadi has added yet another achievement to his impressive roster: He is one of 32 Americans selected this year to study at the University of Oxford in England on an elite Rhodes Scholarship.

Hattangadi, 21, a straight-A senior also majoring in economics and chemistry, was chosen from among 909 applicants. Ninety-five students from more than 18 countries were selected.

He plans to pursue a graduate degree in management studies at Oxford beginning in September, with an eye toward running his own biotechnology company someday. His goal: to design new drugs and medical devices and find an incentive for companies to make them available to the world's poor.

Hattangadi said Sunday that he is looking forward to the challenge of Oxford. He credits his success partly to Winter Park High School for giving him a broad academic background and partly to his parents for supporting but never pushing him or his sister, Jona, also a Duke student.

``They provided an atmosphere in which we could not help but be successful,'' Hattangadi said. ``They encouraged us to have a passion and go after it.''

Rhodes scholars, who count President Clinton among their ranks, are chosen not just for their high academic achievement, but for their integrity, unselfishness, leadership potential and physical fitness. Cecil Rhodes, a British colonial pioneer, philanthropist and Oxford alumnus, established the scholarship in his 1902 will.

Hattangadi fits the Rhodes ideal of all-around accomplishment. He is president of the Duke chapter of Tau Beta Phi, an engineering honor society that focuses on service projects, and he was on the swim teams at Duke and at Winter Park High.

He loves literature and tries to read The New York Times every day, and he makes a point of socializing with people outside his field, from philosophers to historians.

``I like to have fun,'' Hattangadi said. ``But at the same time, if you're passionate about what you're doing, it's very easy to stay on track.''

Hattangadi's commitment to science was solidified when he met Nobel laureates in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of his award for winning the science fair grand prize in 1995.

``That really inspired me,'' he said.

Hattangadi is working on his honors thesis project: designing a way to use biotechnology and computers to analyze blood samples instantaneously. He envisions the technology allowing hospital emergency rooms to detect HIV or illegal drugs quickly and more cheaply.

While at Winter Park High, Hattangadi was a finalist in the prestigious Westinghouse Science Talent Search, although he was disqualified because his father, Ashok, works for the company.

His botany project, which explored ways to eliminate the need for chemical fertilizer, won a number of other awards.